American runners prove they can go the distance

Published 4:00 am, Saturday, May 8, 1999

STANFORD - When Bob Kennedy had finished his debut go at the 10,000 meters in the gathering chill on Friday night, the feeling was that distance running doesn't get any better than this in the United States.

Great distance races are usually held on balmy summer nights in places like Oslo and Helsinki and Brussels and Zurich. Friday night's run at Stanford was damn good by American standards, as three men broke 28 minutes and seven bettered the qualifying standard of 28:10 for the World Championships this summer and the Olympic Games in 2000.

Several hundred die-hards remained at Cobb Track & Angell Field after 10 p.m. for the last event of the Cardinal Invitational and cheered as Kennedy, the best American distance runner since Steve Prefontaine, came across the finish in 27 minutes, 38.37 seconds.

That's the 10th-best performance all-time by an American. For comparative purposes, the American record, a hoary mark by Mark Nenow dating to 1986, is 27:20.56. The world record is less than a year old, a withering time of 26:22.75 by Ethiopia's Haile Gebrselassie.

For the 28-year-old Kennedy, better known as the first American to dip under 13 minutes for 5,000 meters in a valiant effort to hang with the African elite, Friday night's 10,000 gave him the option of choosing that distance for the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, since qualifying times are retroactive to May 1 of this year.

"My first goal was to run the qualifier, so I have all the flexibility I need next year for the Olympics," said Kennedy, an Indiana graduate who lives in Indianapolis.

"The second goal was to run 27:50. Anything better than that was a bonus. I was very happy with that. The biggest concern was being able to focus for 25 laps. I pulled that off pretty easy, actually."

Credit Stanford coach Vin Lananna, a distance disciple, for setting up an ideal 10,000. He assembled a swift field and provided two pacemakers, Pascal Dobert and Ryan Wilson, both of whom train in the area. Dobert took the field through 10 laps, or 4,000 meters, at which point Wilson took over through 6,000 meters.

From there, leader Michael Njenga of Kenya and Kennedy were on their own. With three laps to go Kennedy overtook Njenga, who faded to third on the last lap as he was passed by fast-finishing Colorado grad Alan Culpepper.

Culpepper ran a big personal best in 27:39.27, as did Njenga in 27:43.37. Another significant finisher was Stanford's Brad Hauser, who improved his school record to 28:08.12 and attained the World Championship qualifying standard as well.

"Coach Lananna said, "It's going to be fast, here's your pacemakers, there's no need to push and shove.' It led to a positive atmosphere," Kennedy said.

Kennedy is positive he can crack 27 minutes for the 10K just as he broke 13 minutes for the 5K with his American record 12:58.21 from 1996. All it takes is to average a tick under 65 seconds for 25 consecutive laps. Think about that for a moment. He averaged between 66 and 67 seconds per lap for most of Friday night's race before smoking the last lap in 62.

There were other races of note in the Cardinal Invitational, a couple of them surprising.

* UCLA grad Mark Hauser, no relation to Stanford's Brad Hauser, took the measure of Kenya's Luke Kipkosgei in the 1,500. The ex-Bruin ran 3:39.92 while Kipkosgei dropped to third in 3:40.77, clearly not race-ready in May.

* Stanford grad, Oakland resident and three-time Olympian Regina Jacobs put in a speed workout by running the 400 in 57.14 (her first since 1986) and coming back to tour the 800 in 2:06.11.

"The whole idea is to get my 400 time down in order to get my 800 time down and get the American record in the 1,500," Jacobs said. "Mary Slaney has had the 1,500 record forever."

Only since 1983, actually, a time of 3:57.12. Jacobs' best is 4:00.46.

Summing up the meet, Christiansen, the 800 winner, said,

"It was very exciting. We need more of this in the U.S. Pre (Prefontaine) was saying that 25 years ago. He wanted to bring in the Finnish team to run against Lasse Viren. It's the same thing today with the Kenyans." &lt;

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